Wednesday, June 14, 2006

I was reading carols conde's blog-column on mindanaotoday.com a case of a label given a journalist may have put her life and that of her family in jeopardy.I after that to myself I wondered how many labels journalists face for the work they do when more often than it is because of the stories we write or cover we are seen as what we are.

When in most cases its just a case of the fact that those stories come to us or editors assign us to a topic or beat and we get good at covering it so much that news organizations when ever another story like that pops up -that's the assignment we are given.

For contradicting the military’s propaganda against the New People’s Army, a hard-hitting Kidapawan journalist is being vilified by the army as a communist, thus putting her life in grave danger. … []

I remember for years I carried a environmentalist journalist label because I climbed hills and valleys and did stories on illegal poaching of lumber- then I was also thought of as a fugitive hunter = then a pedophile chaser - then a crime reporter- then a expose guy- then a financial journalist- then a foreign affairs reporter- then a 'world news' guy… but hey all of those were assignments.

All of those labels were just part of the process of covering stories I was assigned to.

Also because those were stories I was assigned to cover.

I am sure that the Military officer may have his reasons for his opinion - but - instead of branding the messenger perhaps he should get some remedial personality training on public affairs and public relations.

More often than not - some of what we cover does 'rub off on us' so perhaps it does bear a problem.

In another part of the country where i grew up - Palawan - there are claims of another kind of labels pinned on one group of people. The Local Environment paper Bandillo ng Palawan was 'labeled' by of all people other media outlets - for 'BLOGS' about them - c'mon guys grow up anything journalists hate to write about is other journalists -why because we have very boring lives! And there are more interesting topics out there.

So be careful with labels or tags or postscripts or things that can in this trigger happy place make someone a target. Lastly always remember that reverse labels also apply.

Meaning - pre-labeled or pre packaged to appear as something one is not.

7 Jun 2006 by Bandillo ng Palawan We were flooded with text messages from concerned listeners who informed us that DYER, which is widely known to be under the control of Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn, had named Bandillo ng Palawan as the possible creator of … Bandillo ng Palawan - http://bandillo.blogspot.com …[]